Happenings when redster is doing stuff. Or the pursuit of things other than words or beer.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

LIFE BEFORE iCSCA few thoughts on the previous period
Renato Redentor Constantino
August 22, 2010

Prior to iCSC, I was with Greenpeace for almost a decade, working on climate issues as a regional campaigner with Greenpeace Southeast Asia, covering Thailand, bits of Indonesia and a large part of the Philippines.

I had a great time working on the negotiations, though it's really not my cup of tea - part of campaigning is about "putting out fires" or "igniting fires" in a campaign sense. In the global negos to hammer out a relevant climate treaty with enduring, positive consequences for the planet, troublemaking - both confronting it or being the source of it, is not immediately evident.

But no complaints. Colleagues younger than myself are at the helm now and they're really built and trained for such work, and as a result they're doing far better.

I remember this one bash in Vienna, where the range of emissions reductions was being debated. This was just before the big (or small?) Bali UN climate event, and what was called then as "the range" would prove a crucial incremental step towards laying down a real basis for further negotiations regarding the emissions cuts rich countries had to make.

Here's a blast from the past, courtesy of the coverage of Bloomberg's Mathew Carr in August 31, 2007.

I do remember saying as a Greenpeace campaigner in the event's closing presser then, a quote carried by Carr and other news agencies, that "The road to Bali is clear, though it's time to switch gears."

The year after, I moved to head the largest network of NGOs and community groups that has been monitoring the policies, projects and programs of the Asian Development Bank since 1992. The group's name -- the NGO Forum on the ADB. It was and remains the leading watchdog and monitoring group that has helped keep at bay many of the destructive lending initiatives of the regional development bank.

My stint as Forum head was to take me to India often - work which I enjoyed immensely due to the companionship and comradeship of great friends and the explicit historicity of the country -- a great house of memory.

The work also brought me to places Central Asia and the Caucasus, an incredibly fascinating world with diverse cultures and from where I've also made what I believe to be life-long friendships.

Another blast from the past - in early May in 2009, the Forum led one of the stronger push-backs against the ADB, which was then trying to leverage a huge capitalization increase from its main donor country shareholders.

With a great advocacy team composed of Jessica, Steph, Tea, Rina, Leak, and Joanna, and a comunications team led by Romil and ably guided by Rico - the savvy, suave media campaigner - and Afif, we registered enough pressure to eventually influence Bank decisions that led to the strengthening of ADB's safeguards and energy policies.

The editorial below by Manila Times reminds me of that period, which Romil, Rico, Afif and I celebrated by getting ourselves cross-eyed with booze on the event's final day in May 6, I think. The whole gang was there too, but the communications group was the one that got punch drunk, including myself.

The editorial title of the Times was "ADB, ‘rebalancing’ and Filipinos". It conveyed a fraction of the anger and frustration from social movements and community groups, in the midst of the ADB's bid for a general capital increase:

Elsewhere, international news agencies picked up most of our messages and for the coherence of our narrative and the preparations made by the communications team, our stories were picked up by the Associated Press several times, along with Xinhua, Deutsche Press Agency and Agence France Presse.

Here is Stephen Wright, whose story on the ADB's Annual Meet in Bali in 2009 was published by USA Today. Wright used the context we had provided earlier, as we released a barrage of reports indicting the Bank's directions.

In the May 3 story "Asia urged to rethink growth policies," Wright wrote about the clamor that "Asia's governments must spend more on social safety nets and reduce their reliance on export-driven growth even as they grapple with an economic meltdown that will keep tens of millions trapped in poverty, finance officials said Sunday." I had an interview with Wright that day, and the response I gave made it to the story he filed:

I encourage readers to contact the new chief of the Forum, Dr. Avilash Roul, who has since April this year taken over the reins. He cooks a wicked mutton masala, so be a friend if you want additional happiness.